On
behalf of all who have been privileged to serve this great institution
as president, I welcome you to historic Altgeld Hall—birthplace
of Northern Illinois University.

Our beginnings as a state “normal school,”
or teachers college, set the stage for generations of service
to a region now ranked as third largest in the country. We honor
those beginnings in the pages that follow, and we celebrate a
future in which lovingly restored Altgeld Hall can continue to
play a role.

Those who came before me and those who will
come after are linked in purpose and vision—and now, in
a very real way, by the building where it all began. Altgeld Hall
is not a museum, but a living, working, public space where the
roots of American higher education are still very much in view.
It is your building, and I hope you will visit often.